My Art Workshop

Today at the beach. We stayed there for hours and just enjoyed the water, the sand and the blue sky 🙂

Days of vacation at my Mom’s. We have been thoroughly pampered here with bonfire nights, sailing with the old wooden ship, Castor, and a day trip to Vigelsø, a tiny island in Odense Fjord. All days have been absolutely great.

A few days back I drew a dragon as we watched “How to train your dragon”, one of my kids cartoons.

When we went to Goa in India a few years back my Mom and I each bought home a peacock feather fan. Her’s is hanging on her wall, and I decided it could be fun to draw it yesterday.

This morning I was sitting outside the tent, where we slept last night. The view over Mom’s garden was wonderful and I decided to draw part of it.

This is starting to be too much fun! I have been up all night to finish this one. I still need to do shoulders and clothing, but I think her face is done now. Usually spending a bit of time away from the work and then returning makes it easier to see mistakes. A bit of time sleeping will probably help I am sure, but I decided this drawing is done for now.

Higher resolution

…is someone you know and love. Capturing not only likeness but also a person with all his amazing personality is so terribly hard.

Today was Midsummer. In Denmark that is a day of celebration and large bonfires. In our little village we have a tradition of gathering in our neighbor’s barn for a barbecue.

At 8pm the neighbor starts his little, old, red tractor. All the kids have been waiting for this moment. This is the time for ice cream and tractor ride. They all gather, sitting on hay bales on the tractor wagon, while the adults walk behind. Then the entire village population walks or drives to our secret bonfire place.

We all gathered wood and weeds all Spring to burn on this day. It always turns out to be a gigantic bonfire. Sometimes we build a witch doll to burn. According to ancient tradition, the fire sends all witches and other evil beings to Bloksberg in Germany, because, that is where all evil belongs…??

It’s such a weird tradition, making about as much sense, as dragging a tree into the living room around Christmas time. I have no idea why Danes seem to believe all evil belongs at Bloksberg. But my husband went up Bloksberg a few weeks back. He says it’s pure hell climbing up there on a bike. So perhaps the tradition is not half wrong ;P

As the flames dance, we sing the traditional Midsummer song: Midsommervisen
For today’s drawing I got a request from my sweet brother: Feet!
Mom is visiting for Midsummer. We had a wonderful evening and as requested: Mom’s feet 🙂

My garden is looking fantastic right now – everything is in bloom. This particular pink poppy I have been planning to snatch a pic of for days. One flower alone is larger than my two fists together! And then there are the lavenders. They are like an ocean in front of our house. Last year they were pathetically half dead because of the long winter, but this year they seem to be larger and thicker and bluer than ever before. Bees and butterflies love them and I an happy they all have a safe haven here in my garden.

Today I decided to bring out the artillery. So I found a watering can from my kitchen window and went for my soft pastels. Now I need a new category for my shenanigans in here. It needs to be called “Mess”. I have color everywhere! On me, on my desk, on my floor and quite a bit on my paper too. But fun it was and so very different from using pencils. I simply can’t dive into tiny little insignificant details with this stuff, it is made for the big lines. So big lines it got. All over!

Strange thing: When I draw I find it really hard to see if I get the proportions right. The second I scan the drawing to the computer and look at it on the screen, I can see all the errors right away.

Time spend drawing: 10 mins max
Time spend cleaning the house afterwards (and me): at least 10 mins too

Fast hand sketches – 3 sketches in all, 2 minutes drawing time on each.

We did it again – my kid and I. We went for drawing fast figure sketches again, only today we went for action poses from ball games and 5 mins/sketch. My kid is developing his drawing skills so fast it’s almost scary. I am so impressed with his drawings today.

Today I wanted to draw humans. My kid and I had fun with drawing quick sketches (3 mins/sketch) of humans. It’s so hard to do, but also much fun, especially doing it together. First we did each 5 different poses. After that my kid decided what to draw. He wanted Star Wars universe characters. Specifically a special alien Jedi Master called Kit Fisto. So we both drew him as well.